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Joy and Peace

st annes logoGuest Post by Chet Paschke, former Grand Forks Police Chief

Perhaps at first blush, the title to this article may be reminiscent of Christmas. On that theme, some may say “Christmas is year round”! Be as it may, when writing about all that is within and takes place at St. Anne’s, one can sense Joy and Peace and yes, “year round”!

My wife Sharon and I were not very familiar some years back with St. Anne’s. We’d stop in to visit a friend or relative on rare occasions, but didn’t spend much time learning about the environment there. It wasn’t until about four or so years ago that (then) Deacon Neil Pfeifer, (now) Fr. Pfeifer inspired us to consider signing up for Adoration at St Anne’s. We had thought about doing that for some years, but his prompting was the turning point for us in learning what St. Anne’s (appropriately called Guest Home) is all about, and their mission.

Our “insight” began with simply choosing a once a week Adoration hour. The experience just walking into St. Anne’s abounds with Joy. Be it the receptionist, Sr. Rebecca, Sr. Elaine or Sr. Christina, other staff members, a resident or even the pet dogs Gracie and Dodge; each has a radiant greeting for anyone entering this beautiful home. Continuing further by walking into the Chapel, you immediately sense Peace; fully realizing you are now a guest of our Jesus so happily waiting for His guest- tranquility immediately sets in. This is a Peace that hard to describe and needs to be experienced.

Our “hour with Jesus” happens to be when the Sisters pray their evening prayers. It was by coincidence that we selected that hour and what a blessing. Taking part in their time of devotion is special to us. Some may like a full hour of silence- that’s fine. There are many hours to choose from. The point is that Adoration is open for everyone and engulfs one in joy and peace.

But- there is more at St. Anne’s Guest Home! Jesus there is accompanied by the great staff and its residents. The St. Anne’s mission statement reads “St. Anne’s primary objective is to promote the self-worth, personal dignity, security, happiness and longevity of each elderly or disabled person”. Each staff person truly assures every element of this mission statement is followed.

On the lighter side with the great staff, St. Anne’s offers fun for all, guests, residents and community. Well-planned socials such as pie/ice cream events help promote getting to know the residents. Oh, and we can’t forget the music! “In-house” accordionists Sr. Elaine and Chuck Gust and other musicians liven up any crowd with their great music.

May we invite others to share this Joy and Peace at St. Anne’…Come and experience the on-going Christmas whether it be a daily mass, a casual visit, a social event or scheduled or non-scheduled time adoring in the Chapel. You can even make your first visit on your computer @ www.stannesguesthome.org.

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A beautiful place…St. Anne’s Chapel

Here at St. Anne’s we offer many beneficial services to our residents, including, but not limited to, nourishing meals, medication supervision, rides to appointments, and engaging activities. Another benefit we offer, which several take advantage of, is our St. Anne’s Chapel. Here, residents and visitors alike gather for daily rosary and Mass. We are blessed by priests from the area who so graciously provide the opportunity for our people to take part in the liturgy daily, where they otherwise would miss out.

Some of our residents also take part in another opportunity available in the chapel; that is, Eucharistic Adoration. Most of them are not able to drive, and yet they are able to come visit our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. A few of our people actually have committed to taking hours of Adoration during the week.

The hour before Holy Mass each day is covered, in fact, by our residents, who come for quiet prayer and then recite the rosary together at 8:30 a.m.

St. Anne’s Adoration program benefits outsiders as well; in fact, they are the ones who make it possible to maintain Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, which St. Anne’s currently has weekly Monday through Friday.

Through this program, St. Anne’s residents and members of the greater Grand Forks community are given a wonderful opportunity; that is, to sit ‘face-to-face’ with Jesus, who is with us through His Eucharistic presence and visit with Him praying for their needs and those of the world.

In order to maintain Eucharistic Adoration, out of reverence for our Lord (and never leave Him unattended there in the Eucharist), St. Anne’s Adoration committee is striving to have two people signed up for every hour when there is Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. There are some hours which they are struggling to fill (See below).

If you would like to take advantage of the wonderful opportunity available at St. Anne’s, and schedule a weekly intimate visit with Our Lord, please see below for contact information.  To view testimonies from others who have found rich benefits in their time of quiet prayer here, visit the testimonials page.

We are grateful to have a beautiful place, the Chapel at St. Anne’s, where we can do this.

To sign up, call Gale O’Neill at (701) 610-0102 or visit: www.stannesadoration.com .

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Looking forward to ‘St. Anne’s Week’

St. Anne's Week
Last year’s Sports Day

Soon we’ll be kicking off our annual week of festivities in celebration of our patron saint, that is St. Anne, the mother of Mary and Jesus’ grandmother!

I say “kicking off’ because the dress up theme for the start of the week is ‘Sports Day.’  Each day will have a dress up theme, an act of kindness, and a trivia question.  Prizes will be awarded, probably at our celebration day on Monday, July 27.

So if you stop by St. Anne’s and notice people being especially kind, or dressed kind of goofy, you’ll know why.  If you plan ahead, you can even take part yourself – take a look in your closet.

The schedule is as follows:
Monday, July 20 ~ Sports Day
Tuesday, July 21 ~ Western Day
Wednesday, July 22 ~ Wacky Hair / Hat Day
Thursday, July 23 ~ Miss-Match Day
Friday, July 24 ~ Bedtime Day
Wear blue for St. Anne’s
Saturday, July 25 ~ Patriotic (Red, White & Blue) Day
Sunday, July 26 ~ Dress-up Day
Monday, July 27 ~ Wear blue for St. Anne’s

“Street Dance” ~ Sunday, July 26 ~ 7 p.m.
Our residents will be invited to gather on our patio for some music

St. Anne’s Day Party ~ Monday, July 27 – 2 p.m.

We’re looking forward to a fun week!

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A fine specimen of….what?

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Guest Post by former Activities Assistant, Ben Heit

So something needs to be brought to light: one can not get trumpet valve oil analyzed at the Grand Forks Clinic! It was a quite day at St. Anne’s Guest home and the Activity Department was gearing up for the next big party! In the mean time, I was called to the front office by one of the nurses on duty. “Ben,” they asked, “Could you take a urine sample over to the GF Clinic for us?”

Well, I was a new employee, and I was eager to help out in any way. I said “Sure, where is it?” It was at the front desk waiting for me. At the main desk, I asked the receptionist if she had the sample and she said, “Oh this must be it.” She had a baggy with a bottle in it, kind of dirty and not really marked. I, being new, I didn’t really know better!

So, off I went to the clinic with the my “Urine Sample.” I arrived at the clinic and approached the lab desk, announcing to them who I was and what I had for them (very proudly). They looked at me like I was crazy and said “What…is…that?” Dirty bag, oily bag, no name, no bio-hazard markings…and I think it might have had musical notes on it. Right, I should have caught THAT! I apologized and started my trek back to St. Anne’s thinking, “Hmmmmm, is it ‘Play-a-trick-on-the-new employee Day’?” I marched into the Nurse’s office and asked the nurse on duty…What is this???? She looked at me and said, “I have no idea, but the urine sample is in the fridge!??

Right at that moment, Sr. Elaine, with a puzzled look on her face, just happened to look in; all she saw was me and the bag I was holding. Her eyes were locked on the oily bag in my hand, like a spot light in the theater and all she said was “THERE IS MY TRUMPET OIL!”- pretty much like she hadn’t seen it in years!!! I am glad I could reunite her with her much-treasured, almost analyzed valve oil!

How it all happened, as she described later, is that she set it down in the office; she left, and I came in grabbed it… and off I went, she came back just a few seconds later and, hmmm, valve oil is now gone!!

I want to say the trumpet vavle oil never looked healthier!! We laughed about this for many, many years and it was one of the great moments of working at St. Anne’s!

Editor’s Note: When sending birthday greetings to Sr. Elaine, he made reference to this comical event, which I then asked him to re-tell on “The St. Anne’s Scoop.”

 

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Happy 75th Birthday, Sister Elaine Marie!

I just wanted to let you know that tomorrow is a special day here – Sr. Elaine Marie Roggenbuck, who has been serving at St. Anne’s for over 40 years is celebrating her 75th birthday!  If you’d like to send birthday greetings or a promise of prayer, I will gladly pass those on to her.

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A first time for everything…lessons learned after an encounter with a wasp

One hears of “occupational hazards,” but Saturday morning I faced peril even before arriving at work at St. Anne’s. I opened the door to leave the garage when suddenly, a little wasp flew by me and gave me the first sting of my life. I can no longer say that I’ve never been stung by a bee/wasp.

At supper last evening, we were trying to figure out the difference in terminology between bees, wasps, yellow-jackets and hornets.  From consulting a dictionary, we learned that “wasp” is actually kind of an umbrella term that covers various classifications of these undesired insects.

Despite the fear and discomfort these little creatures can impose, did you know that they can be good for farmers? According to EasyScienceforKids, they are good at ridding us of “grasshoppers, aphids, flies, other bees” and catipillars; they are predators of those insects that can destroy crops. However, this article goes on to explain that some of them also eat human food, as well as nector, tree sap and fruit.

As I recover from my sting, which was much more minor than horror stories I’ve heard in the past, I’d like to share some other interesting facts about these creatures that had built a nest on our garage.

They live on every continent except Antarctica. Contrary to what people might think, these critters can sting multiple times. They can make their nests out of paper or chewed up bark. Basements, sheds, and other cool, dark places are possible nest locations.

EasyScienceforKids supplies us with yet more information about these uninvited guests, whose habitation our maintenance man removed this morning. The queen of the domain starts a new colony each spring.

An article covering “Interesting And Fun Facts About Wasps” gives more fascinating tidbits.

There are more than 100,000 different species of wasps in the world. Unlike bees, which have a hairier boy, wasps have narrow waists and look shiny. Also, unlike bees, their stinger remains intact so they can sting multiple times rather than becoming embedded in your skin. I was surprised to learn, though, that they only live about 12-22 days.

Another interesting fact about wasps is that the female is the one with a stinger is the egg-laying organ. Contrary to what one might think, therefore, the female is the protector and guardian of the nest from danger. By summer, the queen’s colony has more than 5,000 subjects. Some species of wasps are categorized as social while others are solitary.

The University of Minnesota’s Extension service also offers a lot of good information.

By Sr. Christina M. Neumann

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Just a spoonful of sugar…making the humdrum enjoyable

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By Sr. Christina M. Neumann

Last week,  I made a couple of rhubarb coffee cakes for people to enjoy after Sunday Mass.  I’ve also made a couple of batches of rhubarb sauce recently for our residents to enjoy.  One thing I’ve learned about rhubarb is that it needs sugar.  In fact, I wished I had pre-soaked the rhubarb in sugar before I made the cakes last Monday morning at 2 a.m. (I was working the night shift.)  This lesson about a little sugar making the whole batch better is a good analogy for life as well.

Yesterday, we were cutting up yet another batch of donated rhubarb (two big bags this time).  Doing this isn’t the most exciting activity.  However, during our “rhubarb parties” at St. Anne’s, we’ve learned to “sugar-coat” what could otherwise be a little bit of a sour job; we end up joking and even sometimes singing while we work.  Yesterday, we sang “I’ve been working on the rhubarb All the live-long day.”

Another way that humor (unintentionally) helped “the medicine go down” yesterday came about when one of our ladies kept trying to throw her pieces of rhubarb into the bowl.  It was kind of far away, and she didn’t make it into her target.  I kept telling her to stop throwing it, and that I would take the pieces for her.  However, she would not stop throwing them.  In frustrated fun, I took a big piece of rhubarb (resembling a plank or a bat) and swung it a little, telling her to knock it off or face the consequences (jokingly, of course).

If we didn’t have a little humor in life, things would certainly be boring.  Our slogan, “It’s great to be alive at St. Anne’s” is true, in part, because of the fact that we are not afraid to incorporate humor into the humdrum things of life.  Just as “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down” (or the rhubarb taste better), so a little bit of good-natured humor and positive attitude sweetens all of life for us.

Today, let’s give thanks for the gift of humor and use it wisely!

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A Thank You to our “Fathers” for Fathers’ Day

from our 60th Anniversary Celebration
from our 60th Anniversary Celebration in 2012

Here at St. Anne’s, a lot of our men are not biological fathers.  Therefore, our activities staff have taken to celebrating “Men’s Day” the week after the annual Fathers’ Day observance.  This is a way of honoring the men who live here, regardless of their role in life (be they fathers or not).

I’d like to take this opportunity to recognize and thank some other men, who, while they also lack the title of “Dad,” are affectionately, gratefully, and respectfully referred to as “Father”- and with good reason. We are very grateful for our priests who have served us over the years.

I won’t attempt to name all of them here; there have been many who have come to offer Mass for us; the service of priests to St. Anne’s dates back to when the Home was located at the former location by the river.  I would guess it even dates back to the time when St. Anne’s was in Fargo.

I could not, however, fail to mention Fr. Gerald Potter, whose link with our Sisters dates back to his school days at St. John’s in Collegeville, MN.  He was a waiter there as a student and worked with our sisters who ran the kitchen there.  In later years, he offered Mass at St. Anne’s innumerable times before coming to reside here.

Also, I’d like to thank our priests from St. Michael’s parish (past and present) who have come to offer Mass atSt. Anne’s (both the current and the former locations).  I am very grateful to Fr. Braun, Fr. King, and Fr. Haman for offering Mass here every Tuesday, and on other occasions as needed (as well as Fr. Pfeifer when he was here) .

We very much appreciate the generosity and thoughtfulness of our priests.  It has been very, very seldom (during my six years here) that we have not had daily Mass offered in our Chapel.  Thank you for helping to look after “our little flock.”  A special thanks goes out to Msgr. Vetter and Fr. Bernie Schneider for also making a commitment to us more than once a week!  Fr. Ed Sherman and Fr. William Callery also deserve a special word of thanks for so often filling in.

I’d like to thank all of our priests as we celebrate Fathers’ Day.